Well, I have been absent for quite a while, but that's because I was finally convinced to open a Facebook account (oy vey!). Since I DO have something resembling a life and can hence not be bothered to regale both sets of my fans, I'ma have to discontinue one of these illustrious media. Since updating this one is more time-consuming and since I--after all--AM a child of the generation expecting instant service and gratification (within certain contexts!), I'll be focusing on Facebook. I'll still post here at times, but very infrequently.

I had an acquaintance of mine aver today that "they will end up regretting it."

Well,I don't think America ended up "regretting it" when it fought off the yoke of British tyranny. Nor did France for having overthrown the despicable monarchy. Nor did "East" Germans. Nor did hundreds of other nations and peoples the world over who just wanted to be free.

Sure, what comes after a revolution is often--though not always--worse than or the same as what there was before it (q.v. Iran or dozens of African nations). But you have to start somewhere. Democracy, liberty, equality, and the rule of law usually have to evolve. Newly freed people have to reach the maturity required to have a genuinely democratic system.

Congratulations to the people of Egypt and I hope their time "growing up" is quick and painless.

I thought to write a few words in light of the recent developments in Tunisia.

I am profoundly sad about what is happening there. I vacationed in Tunisia a few years ago and it is BY FAR my favorite M.E.N.A. destination; indeed, easily one of my top spots globally. It's beautiful, tidy, civilized, with lovely, educated and moderate people. It's the only place anywhere in the region where I felt comfortable enough to wear a kipah and disclose I was a Jew. I also met a delightful Tunisia lady a year later who is still a very good friend and who--despite having worked as an Islamic teacher--has been undergoing the conversion process to Judaism as a result of meeting me and who will stand before the bet din later this year.

Anyway, the regime will change though whether the country transforms into a democracy remains to be seen. More importantly, the events there must have every two-bit despot in the Middle East shaking in their boots. Dictatorships always fail. Today it's Ben Ali, tomorrow it will be the execrable Qadafi, the day after the loathsome Al-Sauds. I just hope they are not replaced by something worse: Africa and places like Pakistan being the most chastening examples.

I sincerely hope the situation resolves itself in the best way possible for that wonderful country...

I received an email from the Simon Wiesenthal Center earlier today, alerting me to an article its leaders had published in the Wall Street Journal. Below is the response I dispached.

Dear Sir or Madam:

I write to express my severe disappointment with your most recent communique in which you address, inter alia, the campaign to boycott Israel by the Presbyterian Church and others. Let me make it clear ab initio that I am an Israeli patriot and that, while I detest wars, Israel is the only country in the world I would ever even consider fighting and dying for.

However, Israel's behavior in the past several months is legally and morally indefensible. In the context of the "settlements freeze issue," the obstinacy, hubris, perfidy, not to mention blackmail and extortion, exhibited by our current administration are unparalleled. Even Iran does not deport itself in that manner, which is saying a lot. Since the inception of the conflict in the Middle East in the early 20th century, and even much before, we unquestionably had the moral upper hand. We have now lost it. The refusal to engage the Palestinians (who have had a comparatively moderate, functioning and effective government in the West Bank for a few years now) by insisting on pursuing the settlement enterprise--which any fool recognizes is ultimately doomed--is fast turning us into a genuine pariah, and rightly so. Whereas I have been able to readily defeat our adversaries' arguments on just about any topic in the context of the conflict they would raise (including the "humanitarian" flotilla, which was overflowing with armed terrorists), I am at a loss to even explain, let alone defend, Israel's acts on the settlements issue. Stubbornly persisting with Jewish construction on land that simply has no realistic chance of remaining under Israeli control in the long term is mind-boggling. It has nothing to do with Israel's security. Even if it was perfectly legal, which is at best highly dubitable, such construction is a monumental folly.

My issue with the SWC is that you have turned from a venerable institution fighting the most righteous cause in modern history, into a campaign outfit, pursuing an ignoble agendum. Defending Israel's right to exist and protect itself is one thing. Espousing the cause of some religious zealot who wants to live in a trailer in the midst of a hostile population on a piece of land that legally does not belong to him is quite another.

Nor does invoking some god or other help matters. There was no god anywhere in sight when half my family was being exterminated by the Nazis. If there is any type of god out there, which created the universe ex nihilo, he/she/it is quite certainly not bothered about what color flag flies over a miniscule speck of land on a tiny planet during this exiguous period of time, all of which are less than a drop in the ocean compared to the infinity of space and time.

I am now forced to withdraw my support from SWC. If you return to the vision of the late Simon Wiesenthal and return to the valiant Zionist cause, I will reinstate my support. Until then, you are no different from those insane hooligans spitting and shouting "Nazi" at our security personnel trying to evict them from their pathetic hilltop trailers.

According to many reports recently surfaced, Nelson Mandela was livid upon learning that Tony Blair would join the U.S. in the Operation Iraqi Freedom one of whose goals was the deposition of Saddam Hussein.

Now, Saddam was a brutal oppressor, responsible for the deaths and other types of destruction of lives of millions of people. He was a the head of a minority regime repressing the majority population. Shouldn't that sound familiar to Mandela? I wonder if he would have been equally enraged if Reagan and Thatcher had decided to effect a regime change in old South Africa while he was rotting in prison. Hypocrite.

This proves yet again that stupidity is not just the preserve of the lesser mortals, but that eminent individuals, too, can evince traits of dumbassness. Actually, Mandela's compatriot and comrade, Desmond Tutu, is another perfect example.

I just had the misfortune (or masochism) to watch a few old episodes of "Friends." Now, it's not one of my favorite sitcoms by a long shot - the top spot goes hands-down to "Everybody Loves Raymond" - but it's suitable for some light entertainment. Nevertheless, Rachel Green's character managed to annoy me to the point of actually swearing at the T.V. set! She embodies everything I despise about the archetypal Western woman, being a disloyal, cuckolding, manipulative, self-absorbed, hypocritical, ignorant, shallow bitch. Her uxorious "partner" Ross is, if that's possible, even more infuriating because he actually keeps coming back for more crap that Green dishes out to him by the shovel at every given opportunity. But the MOST execrable aspect of it all is the scriptwriters' portrayal of their, ahem, "relationship" as the epitome of romance and as something to aspire toward, which the dumb audience just laps up.

Yesterday’s anniversary of the Islamofascists’ opening shot in its war against freedom was described as the most divisive yet in the United States.

And it’s true. Yesterday WAS divisive and do you want to know why? 9/11 is "divisive" because the bleeding-heart liberals in America equate tolerance with appeasement and pandering.

As most of you know, I don't have time for religion, whether "pastor" Jones’ or "imam" Abdurauf’s, but fact is that Islam is the most belligerent and intolerant mass philosophy present in the world today. Plus, its adherents and apologists demand concessions and treatment they are not willing to reciprocate.

Xians (and Jews, Hindus and others) are prohibited from even assembling in Saudi Arabia (a couple of years ago mutaween stormed a private house where a handful of Indian Xians had gathered for a private prayer meeting, brutalized most of those present, jailed them and then deported them), let alone constructing a building; yet "they" want to construct an Islamic center practically on the site of mass murder committed in the very name of Islam. And they're assisted in it by individuals supposedly advocating freedom and coexistence. The mind boggles.

I hope that one day all artificial borders among human disappear, including states, nationalities, religions, etc. In the meantime though, respect and acceptance among the different groups has to be a two-way street.

Fidel Castro has averred that he had made mistakes and that the socio-polito-economic system (i.e. Communism) that Cuba has espoused for a half century is flawed. It's a great pity he had not realized that at the time of the missile crisis, which nearly destroyed the world to further that disastrous ideology. How close the human race came to its self-destruction in the battle of freedom against dogma!

Comrade Castro also vituperated Ahmadinejad for the latter's anti-Semitism and invited him to try to perceive things from the Israelis' point of view.

Kudos to him for having the courage to abjure his most hallowed precepts upon reflection and realization they were wrong. Very, very few people are gallant enough to do the same, let alone publicly. Castro, just like my hero, Dr. Sharon, deserves utmost respect for this act of sagacity and bravery.

Here's hoping that more people - both in positions of power and the ordinary "plebs" - take to introspection and reevaluation of their "truths," and, hopefully, realize that doctrine - particularly the bellicose types - is a waste of time and a waste of life.

...or five, in my case! By popular demand, here are a few snaps from my island haven. The reason I seem to be wearing the same apparel is that all the photos were taken over only two days. The third and fourth photo depict my "compound" while in the last picture, it's the terrace of mi propio apartmento I'm sitting on.

The "imam" behind the plans to open a mosque at Ground Zero (more or less) is hardly ever made mention of without tacking the epithet "moderate" next to his name. Indeed, in recent weeks he went on a U.S.-taxpayer-sponsored jaunt of the Middle East ostensibly to convince the locals to abjure extremist Islam a.k.a. Islamofascism.

He neglects to add that, whereas the U.S. never set out to murder as many innocent people as it could, the Qaeda animals did and do precisely that.

It just goes to show there is no such thing as a "moderate Muslim."

* * *

A proposito, remember the battalion of liberal bleeding-hearts who whipped themselves into a frenzy a year and a half ago during Operation Cast Lead (which was, BTW, a resounding success by all accounts) over the "unimaginable" "suffering" visited upon the Palestinians in 3Aza by the "criminal" Israel? The violent protests, their ugly faces contorted with acrimony and odium? The pleas for help and the high-profile "aid"-convoys? Come to think of it, remember the Turkish and dozens of other flotillas carrying supplies more recently for the "starving" Palestinians?

Well, hundreds of million of Pakistanis are now experiencing a genuine disaster and undergoing suffering that Palestinians haven't witnessed in their worst nightmares. Yet, where are all the do-gooders with their specious buenos sentimientos?

It seems suffering can only be deemed serious if Israel is somehow involved... - on the imparting side, of course.

* * *

On a personal note, my vacation in the island paradise draweth to a close betimes. It'll be back to the sandpit in a week or so. But, B"H, some very exciting things are in the pipelines for me within the next several months, so watch this space!

Osama - sorry, Obama - appeared to support the building of a mosque practically on the site of the 9/11 atrocity. What next: "Discover Islam" booklets being sent to the relatives of the 9/11 victims?!? Wouldn't THAT be the "progressive" and uber-"tolerant" thing to do!

First of all, no mosque should be permitted to be constructed anywhere in the West until the Arabs get their heads out of their asses and allow the same kind of religious freedoms for all faiths and none in their countries. Until the Catholics can build a cathedral in Riyadh or a Muslim become an atheist in Algeria without repercussions, they can cordially fuck off with their mosques out of New York and elsewhere.

Secondly, to even consider building anything Islamic anywhere near 9/11 demonstrates no virtue or principle except pure unadulterated idiocy. The architects of such a plan I can just about understand: Muslims are not exactly illustrious for their sensitivity toward non-Muslims’ sensibilities. But their supporters, particularly among the Democraps, should be either jailed or deported to Iran for being so fucking dumb. Let them spread their wisdom and illumination THERE.

BTW, if you're viewing this site with Netscape, Opera or any other "alternative browser" and the design looks like shit, it's not because I don't know how to code in HTML/CSS but because you're using a crappy browser. Yes, you may dislike Microsoft but get MS internet explorer and you, too, will be able to enjoy the full splendor of this and many other hitherto inaccessible sites.